Spring clean up in the garden

Spring clean up in the garden

Ah spring, time to throw open the windows, air the house out, and start the spring cleaning process. Isn’t that what we all think about getting done with refreshed energy.   Indoor cleaning, is reserved for a rainy day, when it is beautiful outside so are we! As soon as we can, my time is spent spring cleaning the gardens.  We had a mild winter and didn’t have a lot of snow accumulation to weight down the larger shrubs, clean up was rather light, thankfully.

Last fall I decided to not mulch as heavily as it seemed to choke my perennials, so I was anxious to see how they overwintered.  As the mulch came off, everything looked better than in previous years. The past winter we suffered shrub lost from:

• Rabbits eating chewing all the bark off any small or low to the ground shrub or tree.
• Getting in the way and run over by the snowblower.

After the debris and leaves are removed, the next step in the process is to survey each garden section making notes on: damaged growth, pruning projects, plants to divide, and weed infestations.

Weeding, the dreaded gardener chore.   I love my gardens, wishing they looked picture perfect all the time. Perfection isn’t ever the case it seems.   When I first started gardening, days were spent stooping and plucking these little invaders from where they didn’t belong. To a gardener weeds are: things growing where you don’t want them. Not everything you pull is a weed, I keep a shallow box close by to save things to be transplanted elsewhere.

Now that my gardens are mature, I have very little weeding, which makes me very happy; I also have help. 

Of course I use a weed flamer that cooks all that germinates, passing over young plants will wilt them quickly.   Of all the various tools I have used, I think the weed torch has been on of the biggest time savers for me. Instead of spending hours in one garden I get all my gardens done in a few hours.

The weed burner I first used, was a smaller hand-held unit, sold by Peaceful Gardens or GrowOrganic.com. Initially I had a Benzomatic, which I loved dally. Going back to Grow Organic, I ordered a Sievert Flamer, after unresolved issues (new units with burners that refused to lite) we, luckily, discovered our local Lowes carried the Benzomatic model.
If you have large jobs, there is a larger unit which uses a propane tank. The larger tank means that isn’t quite as portable, thw unit is called the Red Dragon. *update: flamers are now available at Lowe’s and Amazon

The day I started to using weed burners, I was in love with them, how could you not be. A quick pass over the weeds is enough to wilt them and they will quickly die.  The heat expands the water in the plants cells bursting the cells, which stops photosynthesis in the plant.  Done in the early stages of germination, it becomes a very quick process, if the plants have grown to be larger than a double pass might be needed.  Of course if the plant is large, it is easier to either pull it or cut it off at ground level to avoid disturbing the soil.

Because we don’t use chemicals the patio will also have seeds germinating in the grooves, the flamer makes quick work of them and with just a quick pass they are gone.  Moss growth areas  are a thing of the past with a pass or two these plants wither and die..

With that said I am off to do a little torching of the weeds and to play outside in the dirt.